The House Flies Turn Repetition Into Unease on "Derelict Crawl"

The House Flies create a tense, atmospheric universe of thick guitars, bleak images, and persistent repetitions.

The House Flies are a post-punk, dark alternative band based out of Moline, Illinois, whose aesthetic is influenced by shoegaze, goth rock, and grunge beyond their own powerful melodic guitar music. Their aesthetic archetypes a distinctive Midwestern sense of place while complementing gritty songwriting with moments of heavier, more textured repetition and modulation.

The band explores longer forms, darker transitions, quiet repetition, Americana imagery, and an intense interiority without sacrificing the record's honest immediacy.

The House Flies build a tense, atmospheric world of dense guitars, stark imagery, and restless repetition through "Derelict Crawl."

Instead of telling us a story with beginning, middle, and end, it glances at the edges of stories, unraveling phrases and images with deliberate ambiguity to suggest meaning, never illuminating it.

At the same time, the recurring opening line, 'We don't belong,' begins as just that, a declaration. Musically, the song moves along like a slow post-punk grind. The guitars are thick and oppressive, and complement the restrained vocals very well. The arrangement is not so much dynamic as steadily building, then introducing a brief spread-out drop-down that breaks the tension before pulling you back again. Its hypnotic repetition and tension are more reminiscent of post-punk darkness and less of the poppy sensibilities that distinguish The House Flies.

The abrupt ending to the song is also very successful; instead of bringing all that tension to a resolution, the song simply pulls the plug on the connection. "Derelict Crawl" ultimately seems more like a place the listener is temporarily stuck in rather than a song that spells everything out.